Model Metrics, a River North-based cloud computing company, is being acquired by Salesforce.com, a San Francisco provider of online customer management for an undisclosed amount. Salesforce.com said in a statement Monday that it has "entered into a definitive agreement to acquire" the eight-year-old Model Metrics. The deal is expected to close by the end of January 2012. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. "The addition of Model Metrics' mobile and social expertise will...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it would integrate rival Salesforce.com Inc apps into its Windows and online Office platforms, furthering Chief Executive Satya Nadella's drive to make the company more cloud-computing friendly. The main thrust of the tie-up means Salesforce's popular customer-management apps will be available on Windows desktop PCs, tablets and mobile devices, while Salesforce users will be able to access...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chatter, Salesforce.com Inc's social networking product for the workplace that customers usually get for free, could help boost Salesforce's top line, as an entryway for the sales automation software company to sell its other products and services, according to an article in Barron's. Currently, there are about 150,000 Chatter networks, bundled for free with the company's other products, according to Barron's April 2 edition. In particular, Chatter...

(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc raised its full-year forecast after reporting a better-than-expected 37 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by higher demand for its sales and marketing software. The world's biggest maker of online sales software said it now expects adjusted earnings of 49-51 cents per share on revenue of $5.30 billion to $5.34 billion for the year ending January 2015. Salesforce.com had earlier forecast adjusted earnings of 48-50 cents per share...

Nov 20 (Reuters) - Business software provider Salesforce.com Inc beat Wall Street expectations and maintained its earnings outlook for the rest of its fiscal year despite a cloudy macroeconomic outlook. The company reported earnings of 33 cents per share, beating the Street by a penny, and revenue of $788 million for the third quarter. Shares ticked up 1 percent to $146.51 in extended trade. Shares of Salesforce, which sells marketing and sales services to...

A local technology entrepreneur has acquired the majority stake in a California sales application company and is expanding its reach by opening an office and adding jobs in Highland Park. Godard Abel, CEO of G2 Crowd, a business software evaluation company, is expected to announce Thursday that he has made a $5 million investment in SteelBrick, which makes a configure, price, quote (CPQ) application for users of Salesforce.com, the customer relationship...

(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc's quarterly earnings and outlook disappointed investors as costs rise following a spree of acquisitions, sending its shares lower. Under Marc Benioff, Salesforce's CEO and founder, the company's fast revenue growth has made it a favorite with investors eager to own part of the growing trend among businesses to outsource their information technology needs - from servers to software, a phenomenon known as cloud computing. But Salesforce...

(Repeats with no changes to text) Feb 27 (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc, the world's biggest maker of online sales software, reported a better-than-expected 37 percent rise in quarterly revenue helped by strong sales at its newly acquired email marketing firm ExactTarget. The company also said Graham Smith, chief financial officer since 2008, will retire in March 2015. The company's net loss widened to $116.6 million, or 19 cents per share in the fourth quarter,...

May 23 (Reuters) - Salesforce.com posted fiscal first-quarter revenue of $893 million and a net loss of $67.7 million, or 12 cents a share, as demand for cloud-based business software grows despite a shaky economy. Analysts on average expected revenue of $887 million in the first quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Oracle Corp's better-than-expected results and quarterly revenue outlook spurred cautious hope on Wednesday that the software maker is on track to revive growth curtailed this year by slow IT spending. The No. 2 software maker posted fiscal-second-quarter results that exceeded expectations, while its outlook for third-quarter earnings was in line with Wall Street estimates. "They seem to be getting their act together. We need more data but this...

Nov 20 (Reuters) - Business software provider Salesforce.com Inc beat Wall Street expectations, posting $788 million in quarterly revenue despite a cloudy macroeconomic outlook. Shares of the company, which sells marketing and sales services to companies like Kimberly-Clark Corp and General Electric, have soared 44 percent this year but have sagged in recent weeks on doubts whether businesses will pull back on information technology spending. Analysts, on...

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc on Monday reported quarterly revenue of $1.08 billion, slightly topping analyst expectations of $1.06 billion. Excluding certain items, the cloud-computing company earned 9 cents per share, in line with expectations of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of the San Francisco-based company are trading near all-time highs as it, under Chief Executive Marc Benioff, has roughly...

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc on Monday reported quarterly revenue of $1.08 billion, slightly topping analyst expectations of $1.06 billion. Excluding certain items, the cloud-computing company earned 9 cents per share, in line with expectations of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of the San Francisco-based company are trading near all-time highs as it, under Chief Executive Marc Benioff, has roughly...

Deerfield-based BigMachines, a maker of software to help companies with complex sales transactions, has been acquired by technology giant Oracle. Financial terms of the deal, announced on Wednesday, were not disclosed. BigMachines was founded in 2000 and specializes in software for what's called CPQ, or "configure, price and quote. " The company's technology automates the process of creating a quote for complex products and executing sales contracts, Oracle said. The...